Late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence was cast in the 1999 science fiction film The Matrix only three days before he committed suicide in November 1997, according to the creator of a new documentary about the singer’s life.
Sydney businessman Ron Creevey, who is working on a film about Hutchence’s final years with music producer Danny Saber, says Hutchence had been given a supporting role in The Matrix, which was eventually shot in Sydney without the musician, who was apparently cast as an ally of Keanu Reeves’ character Neo.
“Michael was planning a career around film while pursuing a solo music career,” Creevey tells Fairfax Media. “He had met with Quentin Tarantino and Robert De Niro, and had been cast in The Matrix.”
Speaking with News Corp Australia, Creevey says Hutchence’s own family didn’t know about his spot in The Matrix.
“I call Michael ‘The squirrel’ because he hid shit everywhere,” he says. “It’s been a bit like an international treasure hunt to find what he’s hidden.”
Hutchence, who acted in feature films like 1986’s Dogs in Space, 1990’s Frankenstein Unbound and 1997’s Limp, has left a bunch of unreleased music to his estate, of which 15 songs are said to be released by Creevey over the next year.
The first of the songs is set for release in November to mark the 20th anniversary of Hutchence’s death, with two more tracks to follow when Creevey’s documentary is released in February 2017. An album of unreleased songs is then planned for release around June, and is said to include two duets with “two very big artists”.
Saber says the upcoming documentary about Hutchence will not include any INXS music, and so shouldn’t infringe the band’s copyright.
In 2015, a previously unreleased Hutchence solo track titled Friction (below) was released after talk of a Hutchence biopic died out.
Elsewhere in the world of INXS, the band are turning their discography and story into INXS The Musical, which is set to open in Sydney in 2017.
Listen: Michael Hutchence – Friction
